Cancer is a major cause of morbidity in the United States. For example, in 1996, the American Cancer Society estimated that 1,359,150 people were diagnosed with a malignant neoplasm and 554,740 died from one of these diseases. Cancer is responsible for 23.9 percent of all American deaths and is exceeded only by heart disease as a cause of mortality (33 percent). Unfortunately, cancer mortality is increasing and sometime early in this century, cancer is expected to become the leading cause of mortality in the United States as it already is in Japan.
Cancers share the characteristics of disordered control over normal cell division, growth, and differentiation. Their initial clinical manifestations are extremely heterogeneous, with over 70 types of cancer arising in virtually every organ and tissue of the body. Moreover, some of those similarly classified cancer types may represent multiple different molecular diseases. Unfortunately, some cancers may be virtually asymptomatic until late in the disease course, when treatment is more difficult, and prognosis grim.
Treatment for cancer typically includes surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy. Although nearly 50 percent of cancer patients can be effectively treated using these methods, the current therapies all induce serious side effects which diminish quality of life. The identification of novel therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers is desirable for improving the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer patients. Such novel therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers are provided herein.